S.A.R. Geelani gets bail too in sedition case

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) A court on Saturday granted bail to former Delhi University professor S.A.R. Geelani, who was arrested in February on sedition charges.

Additional Sessions Judge Deepak Garg granted bail to Geelani, and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs.50,000 and one surety of like amount.

Granting bail, the court took into note that Geelani has been in judicial custody since February 16 and said that he was not required for further investigation in any manner and the completion of investigation was going to take time.

The court said “no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him in judicial custody anymore pending further investigation”.

It said there was no allegation by police that there was any apprehension of the accused fleeing from justice.

Geelani shall not leave Delhi without permission of the court, it said.

He “shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the fact of the case so as to dissuade them from disclosing such facts of the court or to any other authority”, the court said.

Geelani shall surrender his passport before the trial court at the time of furnishing the bail bond/surety bond, it added.

On Friday, Delhi Police told the court that the allegations against Geelani were grievous.

Geelani, who was arrested after police registered a case against him for organising a meeting at Press Club in Delhi on February 9 to mark the death anniversary of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, had moved a fresh bail application before the court on Wednesday.

In his application, he said he was in judicial custody since February 16 and no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him in custody further.

He had also said he had cooperated in the investigation and there was no evidence against him.

An earlier bail plea of Geelani was rejected by a magistrate on February 19. Police alleged that anti-national slogans were raised by a section of Kashmiri students at the event.